特朗普(Trump)政府正在探索如何绕开世界贸易组织(WTO)来解决贸易争端，此举相当于朝着摆脱美国20多年前帮助建立的体系迈出了第一步。
The Trump administration is exploring alternatives to taking trade disputes to the World Trade Organisation in what would amount to the first step away from a system that Washington helped to establish more than two decades ago.
数名候任官员已要求美国贸易代表办公室(Office of the US Trade Representative)起草一份清单，列出华盛顿方面可用来对中国及其他国家实施单边贸易制裁的法律机制。
Incoming officials have asked the US Trade Representative’s office to draft a list of the legal mechanisms that Washington could use to level trade sanctions unilaterally against China and other countries.
获悉这项要求具体内容的人士告诉英国《金融时报》，这些官员的目标是，为新政府找到可以绕开WTO争端解决机制的办法。
Their goal, people briefed on the request told the Financial Times, is to find ways that the new administration could circumvent the WTO’s dispute system.
自1995年成立以来，WTO已成为解决成员国之间贸易冲突的主要平台。WTO支持者表示，该机构帮助防止了多次具有毁灭性的贸易战。
Since being established in 1995 the WTO has become the pre-eminent venue for resolving trade fights between member countries, which its proponents say has helped prevent destructive trade wars.
按照特朗普政府的计划，美国将保留WTO成员国身份。尽管如此，上述官员的举动反映出，他们中的许多人对该机构持怀疑看法。在他们眼中，WTO是一个对美国利益抱有偏见的、慢节奏的国际主义官僚机构。
While the US would remain a WTO member under the Trump administration’s plans, the officials’ move reflects the sceptical view many of them have of an institution they see as a plodding internationalist bureaucracy biased against US interests.
此举还显示出，发誓要奉行“美国优先”(America First)对外政策的唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)，将以何种方式考验其多位前任帮助建立和维护的全球经济秩序。
It also illustrates how Donald Trump, who has vowed to pursue an “America First” foreign policy, is setting out to test a global economic order that his predecessors helped to build and defend.
这位美国总统在去年选战期间曾表示：“WTO是个灾难。”
“The World Trade Organisation is a disaster,” the president said during last year’s campaign.